stgdz's D3 Unicc and D2 build, oh and dual subs

I have had d3 parts for quite some time and never got around to getting the wood cut. Well I got the wood cut last week and did some work today. D3's for fronts, unicc for center, and D2's for the rear. All designs can be found at PE

Stay tuned for more updates, this is my first speaker project and I am doing 7

Pile of wood


And I am I starting with the subwoofers first





What is the best way to start the first 90 degree joint? I used nails to tack it into place but now I can't use a round over bit. The wood would wiggle in the clamps when setting it up and it was difficult to get the 90 degree setup.

yeah we used a square to get it lined up initially but the clamps would make it wiggle a bit. Next time we will clamp the square to the board.

D3's







Started playing around with wood putty to see how it would work. Works pretty well and I am going to wait until the boxes are fully assembled to start the wood putty. Where can I buy the stuff in bulk or large containers. My wife being the lovely assistant that she is got the stuff from menards in a tube. I don't believe I can use spacle though correct?

Center channel






And this was my problem that I was able to resolve but I didn't upload the pictures of it from last night


Oh and rightbrain did you ever build your sealed AV15's?

D2 surrounds

finished up the D3's last night





But before I could finish I had this happen, I had even glue all of them to the back and it still stripped out


So these little guys came to the rescue, I put the barbed nut in on the back with the basket in on the baffle and slowly pulled it into the wood. No more T-nuts for stgdz.




The speakers are very bassy and not much mid range in there but they sound really good.

All done


I spent the weekend watching a couple of movies a 00 level and they sound really good. Haven't finished the subwoofers yet, oh and the best part is that I wandered over to best buy to see a set of towers that are probably similiar to my D3's going for double the price of what it cost me in materials/parts for all 5 speakers.

I figured I would give an update on this for the 1 or 2 people viewing this thread besides me

I have been using these speakers almost exclusively for movies and I really like them for what they do. The D3's really give out good bass and good highs for the left and right front channels, I really really love the bass these speakers give out.

The center is also really good, it communicates really well across all the ranges.

The surrounds I am happy with but I have noticed they distort when driven really hard(doesn't happen all the time), I haven't narrowed it down but I am not very happy with them. If I had to do it again I would probably go with the 6 1/2 driver.

This is an all dayton system and the silk dome is really nice, but when the frequencies get pretty high I notice a little distortion. I am currently looking at the dynamic 4 series system from clearwave or a ZDT system that Zaph made. I know some people may read into this and think the system that I built isn't that good. It really is! I probably spent less then $600 putting the entire thing together. I don't know of another system out there that can beat what I have at this price point. The wife is very happy with the system and I am happy with it. I plan on moving it upstairs and building an "reference" system for the basement, I just want that extra little bit of sound quality. I would build this system again in a heartbeat but would change to the different surrounds.

Thanks guys, during the building process I grabbed a two channel Parasound 300w parasound amp.

front sub

Amps and you can see the rear subwoofer kinda next to it.

Current setup, the equipment is at that back right corner of the room


Having the sub in back is actually kind anice because I feel enveloped by the sound. The subs are just driven from two channels of my 5 channel amp at 200w's a piece and some no name 10"s that were given to me awhile ago for free, no EQ control on it. I figured if I ever wanted to upgrade the drivers in the future a 12" cube would probably be pretty good. I don't have any REW graphs for it yet as the room is unfinished and I don't know if there is any advantage to doing it. I am somewhat happy with the system though

Its good for what it is though as it gives me some LFE sounds but the upgrade path is new subs->reference speakers. I have been picking peoples brains on what do for a reference level subwoofer and I have sorta choosen dual AV15H's powered by a single EP2500 but I haven't figured out wether to dual sealed, ported or IB. I don't have any frontal room for an IB and I have dropped three lines in front for subs and maybe a MBM I did run across an article that you can run a sealed front setup and an IB in the rear. I will only be watching movies down here so I have been waffling around alot with the sealed vs ported because of all the advantages and disadvantages of each system.

Well I somewhat finished my new downstairs speakers so I moved these ones up stairs. The boss demanded that they look a bit better so I painted them flat black. The tweeter is about 2 feet above the listening position and about 10ft away, should I flip the center so that the mid is on top of the tweeter?



Going to to build Tsolms tapped horn sub and fit it behind my 32" CRT.